To Stand A Top The Mountain
by Matchitehew.F
Summary: Issei Hyoudou is just a Normal Human. No special powers, no amazing lineage, no secret past, just a normal human. That is until he has an encounter with the supernatural that changes him forever. Now thrown into a world of monsters beyond comprehension how can he possibly compete let alone survive. That is one thing Issei has though, a will to live which means getting stronger.


**Chapter 0: Prologue; Death?**

"Issei Hyoudou." came the teacher's voice over the excited murmuring or middle schoolers as they anticipated the end of class and school for the day soon.

"Yes sensei?" responded Issei as he snapped out of a spacing out.

"I would like for you to stay after class, I'd like to have a word with you." replied teacher, Mr. Yamato.

"What about sensei?" questioned Issei.

"I wouldn't want to embarrass you in front of class, it's about you grades recently, as your sensei it's my duty to make sure that every student is doing their best." the teacher said in a lower tone while leaning in so that it wouldn't be heard too loudly by the other students.

"Yes sensei." Issei said, looking embarrassed.

What followed was his teacher at the end of class holding him back for the discussion on his grades, they were slipping. He couldn't help it, he couldn't focus on such mundane things when his mind began to wonder to other things, like his female classmates. He was beginning to notice how cute and pretty they looked, especially those who were starting developed earlier than others. And the oppai, truly the kami's choose to bestow man with such supple gifts to admire on this world. They were supple, round, and all kinds of great.

Issei realized that he was getting off track, darn oppai, making his mind wander when remembering how they made his mind wander, truly a sign of the mystic, near divine, nature of them.

After a considered lecture from his homeroom teacher he started off home. Then he felt something. For some reason his feet just led him somewhere, it felt… right, like he was always supposed to go this way.

"Hmm? Where even am I?"

It was then that he stopped in front of a house, it seemed like nobody had lived there in a while as it was pretty run down. There were weeds growing everywhere and tall as well. The place need some major renovation is it was ever going to sell.

The he heard it, a beautiful sound. A woman's voice singing. It was like listening to Opera or Something like that he had heard over the internet. It was a melodious tune, he couldn't help but be drawn it by it, and without his notice his feet had taken him inside the house. He went down the hall, and in there, sitting on chair in the living room was the most beautiful woman he had even seen.

She seemed to have finished to her song, then she looked at him. Her skin was a flawless ivory, her figure was a perfect hour glass, wide allowing hips, slim waist, and her OPPAI! They had to be DD at least. Her hair was a silk luscious going down her back and very dark. Her eyes were onyx black.

He was stunned and dumbfounded by her beauty, when she turned to look at him she smiled, kami that smile was beauty. Then she giggled, it was like the tinkling of bells.

"My my, what do we have her? A sweet little boy coming into my humble abode? My my what a naughty boy, entering a woman's sacred play without permission, I just might have to punish you." she said while beginning to rise out of her seat.

This snapped Issei out of his stupor as he sputtered, significantly flustered."I-I-I-I just, um, I heard singing, a-and, I, um I- my feet just t-took me, and I-I, um, I d-didn't mean t-to, um-" She giggled again. He just grinned in embarrassment with a huge blush.

"Ku ku ku, how cute, I could just eat up up… " she started to move towards him, "I fact, I think I'll do just that! I'll eat you up! You look the tasty type!" Issei's mind went into the gutter. He was captivated by every step she took, then she licked her lips, those full juicy lips with her long reptilian tongue, and took another step swinging her full hips in sas- wait, reptilian tongue. Yep, now that he looked again there it was.

Issei was then struck by a sudden sense of wrongness. Now that his eyes were critical, he saw strangeness. Her steps, her walk was ungainly and off, unnatural. Her body looked strange, her skin looked to taunt, as if strained. Her eyes, they were too big, her dark eyes, they seemed menacing, too dark, an evil dark. The sense of wrongness came off in droves now, he felt great fear.

She took a step forward, he took one back. She stopped. "Oh? Could it be? Have you noticed, augh, too bad. I could have made you feel _so good_ , and you wouldn't have noticed. Now I'll have to deal with you're screaming. *sigh* Too bad, you had to be more than obvious, stupid human."

"Wha-what? What are you talking about? Wha-" he stopped. Suddenly a rancid smell hit his nose. "Gauh." He nearly threw up. Now he looked around. The inside of the house was more unkempt and rotten than the outside. He couldn't see anything in detail as it was all dank and dark but overall it was desolate. How didn't he notice? The whole place looked codemed. The horrid smell, there were dark brown and black stains all over the place, and the smell of mold in the air.

It was then she was almost next to him. She reached towards him with her long red nails, oh so very sharp looking. In that moment he panicked and he ran, but her nails scratched him going straight through his shirt. He stumbled, the scratches stung like fire, and tripped but got up and ran again.

"*sigh* A runner, why don't you lie down and die already, damn human, it's been awhile since I've fed, I don't have energy for this shit human." He wasn't listening, he was heading for the nearest door, which happened to be the backdoor. He was GTFO. Then suddenly his foot didn't touch any floor, only air. He began to fall forward, through what looked to be hole in the floor. His heart skipped a beat. His mind was racing about his impending meeting with a basement floor, then just as suddenly he caught on something and it caught him after stretching from his impact.

He looked to see what had saved him, it was net of thick string laced together, wait this didn't feel like string. It stuck to him when he tried to move. He started to struggle against it, only for his eye's to widen as he realize that he was caught in what seemed to be a giant spider web.

"Ku ku ku, my my human, all that fuss for nothing, now you are trapped like the live stock you are." came the voice of the woman as she appeared from darkness.

"Wha-What is this?! What's going on?! What are you?! Damn it! What's happening?!" Issei was frantic as logic left him.

"Silly human, isn't obvious, you are going to be killed, I'm going to eat you." As she was approached Issei felt dread build in him with every step she took. Slowly, but not slow enough for Issei to possible be prepared to witness, her mouth stretched, insectoid mandibles came out with a wet crangle ripping her cheeks, her chin split, rows of monstrous teeth were revealed, dripping with saliva and other venomous looking fluids. Insect like appendages sprouted out of her back, along with a pair small, almost comical look bat wings.

Issei felt numbness and was frozen in terror and shock at the insanity of what he was seeing and the whole situation. How was any of this possible? He was just walking home and wandered into abandon neighborhood and now this was happening, some monstrous creature was going to eat him? What was happening. "What… are… you?" he managed to word.

"I'm a devil, welcome to hell." her voice was twisted, deep and otherworldly. Issei felt a shiver rattle his body at those words… so he was going to be eaten by a devil in hell? No, nonono he couldn't die now! Not when he had still had life to live! He didn't deserve this! Issei was unfrozen, he began struggle with the fervor of a madman.

"It's useless human, stop struggling and accept your fate, to be consumed for the convenience of a higher being. That's all that humans are good for, to be used and consumed, that is the destiny and purpose of all humans. So stop struggling and accept it."

' _Is that it? Is this my fate? The fate and purpose of all humans? To be used?... NO! I refuse such a reality! If destiny, fate, the world wants my death then it have to TAKE IT FROM ME KICKING AND SCREAMING!'_ Issei found inner strength enough to struggle at a strength he had never exhibited before in his life.

It was not enough to break the strange spider-like threads.

It was enough to break to rotten wooden floorboards the strange spider-like threads were attached to.

Issei plummeted, it was so fast that he didn't even experience the sensation of weightlessness. He it the concrete floor hard and strangely with a splash, he hurt his back a lot and the back of his head banged the floor, not hard enough to make him black out but hard enough to send his vision swimming. With his eyes clenched close in pain and a hand holding the back of his head Issei sat up using hand other hand for support. He took a few moments come to his senses, he noticed his hand felt wet, in fact his back was too, and his legs. Then he found, that what the devil had said was true, he was in hell.

Issei was in a pool of red. All around it was a deep deep red, a mixture of old blood, putrid water, feces and more. The he was four and a half inches of sit enough to cover him in it when he had fallen but not enough to cover him now that he was sitting up and look around. Floating around in the blood water were body parts, some rotten others not so much. Pinned to the walls were dried husks of what once were humans, some had large chunks crudely tour out of them in bite patterns and others mostly whole. Most of them had horror permanently etched on their preserved faces. Issei felt something bump into his arm that was supporting him. He turned, he was half of a decapitated head of a young girl, no older than ten.

Issei screamed.

He screamed in horror of all this. He flailed and screamed in panic splashing the blood water all around. The webs which had once bound him with their stickiness were now slick with red fluid, but still impeded him with their tangle. He saw the stairs to his left and ran and tripped in their direction.

The Devil did not leave him uncontested. It had crawled into the hole and was now on the ceiling. It crawling towards the the stairs at a rapid past, it's insectoid appendages moving with unnatural fluidity and grace as they helped it travel in a way that defied gravity. He ran, and just barely managed to reach the top of the stairs before it. It was feet away when he slammed that door.

The door only delayed the Devil for a little while, it's hinges were old and rusted, the devil's strength was supernatural. Issei hadn't even turned back to look. He ran to the nearest door he could see.

It was the Kitchen. He looked around frantically, desperate to find something to delay that monster. He saw an empty metal cupboard. He rushed to the other side of it pushed. It only budged but didn't tip. He backed up and then ran up and rammed his shoulder into it with a jump, putting his whole weight into it. It teater and close to tipping, he gave it another shove. It was enough to make it fall, and not a moment too soon as the door received a shuddering blow.

The devil let out a high-pitched noise of frustration. It began ramming to door. To the sound of pounding Issei desperately searched for an escape, or anything he could use. He turned the windows. They were boarded up. He ran up to them to try to pry it off, and with a deep grip pulled, but it wouldn't budge. He searched for anything that could help in a frenzy as the bang on the door grew in intensity and it began to bend with each. He tossed open the cabinets and yanked the drawers open all he managed to find was a bottle of pan non-stick spray with a lighter near the stove and rusty knife.

He made a determined face, if he was going to die, it would be with a fight, he would spray in the her face and stab her an- wait. He say the ceiling was rotted through to the next floor near the fridge. Could he get up? He had to try.

As the door was splintering Issei was trying to pull himself up the next floor. The hole was not a clean one. The planks were rotten and unsteady, the wood was giving him splinters, which would probably be infected with whatever was rotting the wood. His legs were kicking out looking for purchase when they managed to find it on the fridge door. He pushed up on that while pulled himself up, but the fridge door swung open with the pressure almost causing him to fall. He quickly managed to land his other foot on the top of the fridge and use that. But then he heard a crash and quick scurrying steps.

Full of terror at what he knew nearly launched himself up. As all but the bottom half of his legs were up he felt relieved, which quickly turned into unparalleled terror as he felt a steel grip on his left leg with nails digging in. When it tried pull him back his began to kick wildly, but it would not relent. He found purchase for a firm grip and yanked way as he kicked. He felt himself kick something it let out a scream. He must have got it's face. Then he felt his leg get slashed. He yelled out in pain. The devil took the opportunity and started to drag him back. He twisted about to fight it wildly swinging the rusty knife. It shriked in pain as managed to slash one of it's insectoid appendages, he lost the knife as it was embedded in the unnatural thing. The grip loosened. He pulled himself completely up.

Issei almost let out a breath of relief when suddenly the devil's upper body crashed through the hole as well, it's face looking twisted with other worldly fury. As if in petty revenge it stabbed him through the calf with the same knife he had used on it. Issei screamed. Scrambling he picked up the spray and waved it around while spraying in a frantic attempt to ward of the demonic attacker. He also lit the lighter and was waving that to, no sense in his actions as he was trying to live anyway possible. It was when these two's delirious paths crossed that the spray's discharge was lit a flame.

The stream of flame hit the devil directly in the face, causing it to be set on fire, shrieking and flailing in panic and pain. It retreated back down the hole. Issei didn't escape this unscathed either as his improvised flamethrower was unplanned and so his hand that holding the lighter was burned as well. At this Issei reflexively moved his hand away and threw the spray at the same time. Lucky human flesh is not that very flammable unless covered in oil secretions to the extent that it is quite noticeable so when the spray source stopped he was burned no further, it didn't keep it from hurting, a lot.

Despite this Issei knew he had to move, so he yanked the rusty knife out of his calf with great pain and clutched his burned left hand near as he stumbled and limped away.

The room he was not where he wanted to be right now so he moved into the hallway, it was dark up stairs, all the windows were boarded up. He saw only one light source and moved towards it. It turned out to be a window in the restroom, a small one, he could probably only barely fit through it. He shut the door and locked it. He looked around for anything to break the window with but found nothing. He resolved to use his own hand. So he punched the window with his unburnt right hand.

It didn't break.

All he did was hurt his hand, but he _needed_ to do this or he was dead. So he punched it again, and again, and again. There was a spider web of cracks now, it was highlighted by his blood. With three more punched he managed to break the window. There were still large jagged pieces of glass around but he had to get out now, he was hearing movement.

He hoisted himself onto the toilet, and then nearly fell. Issei stopped, his leg was in in pain, now that he looked, he saw that the slash from earlier had been deeper than he thought, he saw some white of his shin bone, and the stab was deep. Both were bleeding and giving off dull pain, and his burnt hand sent out dull throbs of pain as well, his back hurt, his chest hurt, his shoulder, his right hand hurt, his head hurt, and he was tired, oh so very tired. How had he even got this far? He was close to exhaustion, he need to get out and get help fast.

Issei mustered all of his will power with great effort he started to climb out the window, the glass making scratches and cuts, some deep other shallow, along his sides, back and stomach.

Then he was on the ledge, it was only about two feet wide, enough that when he dragged his legs along with him he could lay there. Issei let out a great breath, he made it, he was out, all he need to do was get down!

It was not to be.

The Devil burst her head and arms out of window. Her face partially burnt off giving an unrestrained view of her monstrous visage. Her eyes were bulging red things with many hexagonal shapes, like a fly's, her skin was a black carpus, and she stunk of burnt flesh.

She grabbed Issei by his shoulder around the collarbone, literally. Her clawed fingers sunk into his flesh and she gripped his collarbone. He didn't feel the pain any more. He tried to escape by throwing himself over but now he was dangling, his legs over and his back bent while the pressure was put on his collarbone, almost ripping it out.

Issei, no longer in a sane state of mind was not afraid, he was not terrified, he was not panicked… he was angry.

He was so very annoyed with this bug eyed spider lady. So what, she was some kind of demon, so what she wanted to eat him? He had gotten out fair and squared, despite all odds and now here she was, trying to kill him.

Fuck that.

With these thoughts, Issei Hyoudou grabbed the devil's hair with his hands, not feeling any pain, and pulled, tugged, and yanked. He didn't have a good angle his punches had little power behind them, but that dosen't matter has he punched it right in it's big ol bug eye, actually denting the organic structure inward with a crisp crunch. It shrieked and instinctively let go in order to cover its face while tugging back. Without anything holding him up, the force of gravity enacted it will upon Issei and he began to fall. Issei however, had not let got of the devil's heir and actually tugged it left. His tug was reinforced by all of his weight with the fall and the devil was forced into in sudden jerk onto a jagged piece of glass that was there, Ripping it across its throat. It failed it's arms around frantically but issei's weight kept pulling as the glass was forced deeper, and his angle of fall kept her moving to the side. This caused the devil to nearly be decapitated, but just short of it as the jagged piece of glass wasn't long enough.

Issei's grip finally let up and he continued his fall from a little under two stories. He hit the ground at angal, and heard a sharp break and then he was face down on the ground.

He stirred after a little while. He tried to get up, but he found that both his right arm and leg were broken, with his left leg to gashed up to get moving either. His breathing hurt, probably broke his ribs. He almost gave up right there. But he glanced up, the sidewalk was only eight feet away. He couldn't give up, not now, not when he was so close.

And so, Hyoudou Issei, with only his left arm and burnt hand to use, crawled. It seem like an eternity to Issei, so close, yet so far. All he knew was forward, all thoughts were devoted to the one task of putting out his arm, gripping the dirt and pulling, Repeat.

Then Issei's hand hit cement.

' _I… I did it.'_ he thought.

He just barely managed to shift his head.

He saw the sun setting, it was near setting when he went into the house.

Had it really been that short of a time? It seemed like forever. But now it was over. It was all over.

But was it?

Is this how it's going to end for him? Was he okay with that? He won after all, against all odds he made it out… but why does he feel like it was all just meaningly in the grand scheme of things.

' _I-I, want to live. I've done nothing with my life, I haven't even been a date with a girl let alone touch a boob, I don't want to die… I MUST LIVE!'_

Issei the saw a shadow, his eyesight was very blurry, he couldn't make anything out. The shadow was surrounded by the red of the sunset. Issei, wanting to live, did the only thing he could think of and with the the last of his strength reached out his hand and said with a mouth full of blood:

"P-please… "

And so, in a pool of blood, a lot his own some not his own, in a desolate part of town, Hyoudou Issei's vision faded to black as he saw a shadow bend down towards.


End file.
